A3r7 


Universal  Bible  Sunday 

•  • 

The  dominant  thought  and  aim  of  the  Centennial  Celebration  of 
the  American  Bible  Society  is  the  exaltation  of  the  Word  of  God. 

In  commemoration  of  the  blessings  which  have  flowed  from  the 
Bible,  and  in  gratitude  for  the  good  hand  of  God  upon  the  Society 
throughout  the  100  years  during  which  it  has  put  forth  and  circu¬ 
lated  the  Scriptures,  and  which  100  years  end  on  the  7th  of  May, 
1916,  it  is  requested  that  that  day  be  observed  as 

UNIVERSAL  BIBLE  SUNDAY 

In  this  observance  churches  of  many  denominations  throughout 
the  United  States  have  indicated  their  intention  to  join.  It  will  also 
be  observed  by  union  meetings  in  large  centers,  and  by  special  exer¬ 
cises  in  Sunday  Schools,  Young  People’s  Societies  and  other  church 
organizations  throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of  our  great  country. 

As  the  sun  brings  light  that  day  to  our  southern  continent,  there, 
too,  will  be  gathered,  in  observance  of  this  day,  those  who  love  the 
Word  of  God.  .Assurances  have  already  been  given  that  in  the  Is¬ 
lands  of  the  Seven  Seas,  in  the  far  Philippines,  in  the  Land  of  the 
Rising  Sun,  in  Bible-loving  Korea,  in  great  seeking  China,  in  Siam 
and  India,  along  the  Persian  Gulf  and  the  Delta  of  the  Nile,  and 
even  in  war-smitten  Europe,  there  will  be  those  who  will  join  in  this 
grateful  recognition  of  the  blessings  from  The  Book.  . 

Will  those  who  read  these  lines  all  join  in  the  observance  of  this 
day,  or  a  later  date,  if  more  convenient? 

Literature  to  assist  in  such  observance  may  be  had  from 
The  Secretaries,  .American  Bible  Society,  Astor  Place,  New  York  City. 


Centennial  History  of  the  Bible  Society 

•  • 

The  Rev.  Henry  Otis  Dwight,  LL.D.,  the  Recording  Secre¬ 
tary  of  the  Society,  has  for  more  than  a  year  now  been  set  aside 
for  the  one  purpose  of  writing  the  Society’s  History.  It  is  a  story 
of  intense  interest  and  intrinsic  value  for  all  who  rejoice  in,  and 
watch  solicitously,  the  growth  and  development  of  our  own  country  or 
the  growth  and  development  of  the  Kingdom  of  God  the  world  over. 

It  is  a  volume  of  about  600  pages,  with  illustrations.  Cloth  bound, 
it  sells  for  $1;  paper  bound,  50  cents.  The  .Macmillan  Company 
are  publishing  it  for  the  Society.  Orders  or  inquiries  may  be  ad¬ 
dressed  to 

The  Secretaries,  American  Bible  Society,  Astor  Place,  New  York  City. 


The  Bible  in  the 
Land  of  the  White  Elephant 

Siam 


HENRY  OTIS  DWIGHT,  LL.D., 
Recording  Secretary  of  the  American  Bible  Society 


AMERICAN  BIBLE  SOCIETY 
NEW  YORK 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2018  with  funding  from 
Columbia  University  Libraries 


https://archive.org/details/bibleinlandofwhiOOdwig 


The  Bible 

in  the 

Land  of  the  White  Elephant— 

Siam 

/k  N  atlas  is  not  necessarily  a  good  recourse  for 
JT^L.  ideas  concerning  the  size  of  any  country. 
Probably  it  is  because  Siam  occupies  so  small  a 
space  in  the  edge  of  the  continent  of  Asia  that 
many  people  consider  it  too  small  to  concern  their 
minds.  However,  it  contains  220,000  square  miles, 
which  is  a  good  deal  more  than  the  area  of  the  New 
England  States  with  New  York,  New  Jersey,  Penn¬ 
sylvania,  Maryland,  Delaware  and  Virginia.  About 
60,000  square  miles  of  this  territory  lies  on  the 
eastern  side  of  the  Malay  peninsula,  stretching 
down  toward  the  Straits  Settlements. 

By  Europeans  Siam  is  sometimes  called  the  Land 
of  the  White  Elephant,  because  the  Royal  White 
Elephant  is  revered  by  the  people,  although  it  is 
not  always  easy  to  prove  that  the  royal  elephant  is 
white.  Sometimes  it  is  called  the  Land  of  the  Yel¬ 
low  Robe,  because  the  Siamese  young  man  is  ex¬ 
pected  to  put  on  the  yellow  robe  and  serve  as  a 
Buddhist  priest  for  a  time,  much  as  the  French  or 
German  youth  serves  as  a  soldier  for  a  time.  The 
Siamese  people  call  themselves  “Thai”  (The 
Free),  and  they  call  the  country  “  Muang  Thai” 
(The  Land  of  the  Free).  It  is  a  name  of  which 
they  are  proud,  and  which  they  have  claimed  as 
distinctively  theirs  even  when  they  were  suffering 
under  despotic  rulers. 

In  matters  of  religion  the  Siamese  would  call 
themselves  free,  but  they  are  held  in  bondage  by 

Buddhism.  It  is  estimated  that  there  are  between 

S  2  3 


80,000  and  100,000  Buddhist  priests  in  the  country, 
and  perhaps  half  as  many  pupil  priests  who  wear 
the  yellow  robe,  shave  their  heads,  and  beg  bread 
for  a  living.  Buddhism  in  Siam  is  considered  to 
be  purer  than  the  forms  found  in  many  of  the  Asiat¬ 
ic  lands,  but  in  northern  Siam  it  is  very  frequently 
mingled  with  a  demon  worship  which  chains  the 
people  in  superstitious  fear.  This  demon  worship 
is  of  the  same  class  as  the  worship  of  evil  spirits 
found  in  many  other  parts  of  the  world.  Buddhism, 
on  the  other  hand,  has  religious  books  written  in  the 
old  Pali  language,  which  educated  people  in  Siam 
take  much  pride  in  possessing.  This  pride  in  what  is 
written  opens  the  door  for  all  books  of  religion.  A 
liberal-minded  Siamese  will  respect  the  Bible  in 
some  degree  as  the  sacred  book  of  the  Christians. 

A  Pleasing  People 

The  people  of  Siam  have  not  shown  the  hostility 
to  visitors  which  many  people  of  the  Far  East 
feel  toward  strangers.  Perhaps  this  liberality  was 
fostered  by  the  curious  circumstance  that  in  1689  a 
Greek  named  Constantine  was  Prime  Minister  of 
Siam  and  introduced  Western  ideas.  The  pleasing 
qualities  of  the  Siamese  counted  for  something  in 
the  history  of  the  land  as  a  mission  field.  In  the 
early  days  of  American  missions,  when  Dr.  Judson 
went  to  Burma,  many  thousand  Siamese  lived  in 
Rangoon,  and  their  attractive  qualities  so  delighted 
Mrs.  Ann  Haseltine  Judson  that  in  1815  she  learned 
the  Siamese  language  and  translated  the  Gospel  of 
Matthew  and  Dr.  Judson’s  catechism.  The  cate¬ 
chism,  at  least,  was  printed  in  1819,  at  the  Seram- 
pore  Press — the  first  Christian  book  ever  published 
in  Siamese.  We  may  be  sure  that  many,  many 
prayers  were  offered  for  the  conversion  of  these 
pleasing  people  of  Siam  while  the  Bible  Society 
was  yet  in  its  infancy.  Perhaps  this  story  was 
partly  shaped  by  those  prayers  ! 

4 


The  Bible  Society  began  to  aid  missionaries  in 
Siam  about  eighty  years  ago.  Dr.  Carl  Gutzlaff, 
of  the  Netherlands  Missionary  Society,  and  the 
Rev.  Mr.  Tomlin,  of  the  London  Missionary  So¬ 
ciety,  passing  through  Bangkok  in  1828,  were  so 
struck  with  the  promise  of  the  field  that  Dr.  Gutz- 
laff  appealed  to  the  American  churches  to  work  in 
Siam.  The  American  Board  of  Boston  sent  the 
Rev.  David  Abeel  from  China,  in  1830,  to  Bangkok ; 
and  later  sent  out  Messrs.  Johnson  and  Robinson 
and  Dr.  D.  B.  Bradley  and  others.  Dr.  Gutzlaff’s 
appeal  also  went  to  the  Baptist  missionaries  in 
Burma,  and  in  1833  the  Rev.  Mr.  Jones,  a  Baptist 
missionary  from  Rangoon,  arrived  at  Bangkok, 
while  in  1835  the  Rev.  Mr.  Dean  and  other  rein¬ 
forcements  followed.  The  Baptist  missionaries 
worked  chiefly  for  the  Chinese,  who  could  not  then 
be  reached  in  their  own  land,  and  the  first  Chinese 
church  in  Bangkok  was  organized  in  1837. 

Earliest  Work  by  the  Bible  Society 

Dr.  Gutzlaff  had  begged  the  Dutch  Bible  Society 
for  money  to  print  Scriptures  in  Siamese  and  re¬ 
ceived  a  grant  of  $800.  This  money  he  turned  over 
to  the  American  Board’s  mission.  The  missiona¬ 
ries  set  up  a  printing  office,  asked  help  from  the 
American  Bible  Society,  received  during  the  next 
twenty  years  between  five  and  six  thousand  dollars, 
and  printed  with  this  aid  the  New  Testament  and 
parts  of  the  Old  Testament  in  Siamese — Dr.  Brad¬ 
ley  translating  (from  the  English  version)  a  large 
part  of  the  Bible.  These  books  served  a  good  pur¬ 
pose  in  Siam  long  after  the  Congregational  mission 
of  the  American  Board  and  that  of  the  American  Mis¬ 
sionary  Association  in  Bangkok  had  been  given  up. 

The  Congregational  missionaries  in  Siam  did  lit¬ 
tle  more  than  to  sow  seed.  Mr.  Robinson  wrote  in 
1844  describing  the  improvements  which  they  had 
introduced  into  printing  for  the  Siamese:  “Hun- 


dreds,  and  perhaps  thousands,  in  Siam  have  read 
some  portions  of  the  Word  of  Life.  This  seed  will 
certainly  spring  up  after  a  time.”  It  has  done  so. 
The  Presbyterian  Board  of  Foreign  Missions  opened 
a  mission  in  Bangkok  in  1840-1847.  This  mission 
found  the  work  already  done  a  providential  prepara¬ 
tion.  Years  afterward  Dr.  Dunlap,  the  well-known 
Presbyterian  missionary,  found  an  old  man  in 
Petchaburee  who  had  received  from  Dr.  Bradley 
New  Testament  portions,  and  who  had  been  led  by 
study  of  them  to  put  away  idols  and  believe  on 
Jesus  Christ  as  the  Saviour  of  men.  In  1877  an 
old  man  came  to  the  mission  station  in  Chieng  Mai, 
North  Siam,  for  medical  advice.  A  score  of  years 
before  this  he  had  received  from  Dr.  Bradley  in 
Bangkok  some  Scripture  portions.  He  had  to  study 
Siamese  in  order  to  read  them,  because  the  Laos 
characters  with  which  he  was  familiar  are  different, 
although  the  language  is  quite  similar.  The  light 
shone  in  his  heart,  and  at  Chieng  Mai,  with  further 
instruction,  he  found  Christ.  It  was  this  man  who 
first  called  missionaries  to  Lakawn. 

Two  sequels  of  the  Congregational  mission  which 
cannot  be  ascribed  to  chance  are  worthy  of  note. 
One  of  these  was  the  circumstance  that  Dr.  Bradley 
of  that  mission  had  a  daughter  born  in  Siam,  speak¬ 
ing  Siamese  and  knowing  all  its  peculiar  idioms  like 
a  native,  who  in  due  time  became  the  wife  of  the 
Rev.  Dr.  McGilvary,  the  pioneer  of  the  Presby¬ 
terian  mission  among  the  Laos  tribes  of  northern 
Siam.  In  the  important  work  of  translating  the 
Scriptures  into  the  Laos  language,  Mrs.  McGil- 
vary’s  name  stands  by  the  side  of  that  of  her  hus¬ 
band.  By  heredity  and  by  environment  she  was 
specially  prepared  for  the  work. 

Opening  a  Highway  for  the  Gospel 

Another  circumstance  which  seems  like  a  provi¬ 
dential  preparation  for  the  future  of  these  missions 

6 


was  that  the  Rev.  Jesse  Caswell,  of  the  American 
Board’s  mission,  was  asked  to  teach  a  Siamese 
prince  who  had  been  set  aside  by  a  usurper  and 
was  a  student-priest  in  a  Buddhist  temple.  Mr.  Cas¬ 
well  gave  him  lessons  every  day  during  a  year  and 
a  half.  The  prince  learned  English  and  became 
familiar  with  the  Bible.  When  the  Presbyterian 
missionaries  began  their  work  in  Bangkok  they 
were  troubled  by  the  hostility  and  even  violence 
of  the  usurping  Siamese  king.  In  1851  this  bad 
king  died ;  and  who  should  then  come  to  the 
throne  but  the  priest-prince  whom  Missionary  Cas¬ 
well  had  taught  and  who  became  King  Maha  Mong 
Kut! 

The  new  king  favored  the  missionaries ;  the 
whole  attitude  of  the  government  changed,  from 
that  day  to  this  being  marked  by  extraordinary 
friendliness.  In  1887  King  Maha  Culalongkorn,  the 
son  and  successor  of  Mong  Kut,  visited  Petcha- 
buree.  He  was  very  much  pleased  with  the  mis¬ 
sion  schools  and  hospitals,  contributed  money  for 
their  support,  and  invited  the  missionaries  to  meet 
him  in  order  to  explain  more  fully  the  methods 
which  they  followed.  During  this  interview,  sev¬ 
eral  of  the  princes  talking  with  the  missionaries 
showed  a  wonderful  acquaintance  with  the  Bible, 
which  they  had  evidently  studied.  The  women  of 
the  king’s  court  bought  about  300  Gospels,  and  the 
king,  observing  that  they  were  reading  these  books 
on  all  sides,  inquired  what  these  leaves  were,  “fly¬ 
ing  about  in  all  directions.”  When  he  found  out 
that  they  were  parts  of  the  Bible  he  expressed  good 
will  and  told  them  that  the  reading  would  do  them 
good.  Such  circumstances  are  almost  the  same  as 
if  the  Lord,  as  he  did  to  Abraham  in  the  matter  of 
his  obedience  concerning  Isaac,  had  said  to  these 
missionaries  who  had  given  up  all  in  order  to 
serve  him  in  Siam,  “Surely  in  blessing  I  will  bless 
thee.” 


7 


Into  Laos  Districts 

The  Presbyterian  missionaries  gradually  extend¬ 
ed  their  operations  into  the  Laos  districts  in  the 
North  and  the  Malay  territories  in  the  South  of 
this  great  kingdom.  The  rather  wild,  half-inde¬ 
pendent  tribes  known  as  the  Laos,  and  inhabiting 
the  North  of  Siam,  early  attracted  the  missionaries. 
For  some  forty  years  this  part  of  the  field  has  been 
cultivated  with  vigor.  The  Laos  civilization,  such 
as  it  was,  was  rather  of  the  Chinese  type,  in  the 
highest  degree  conservative.  It  was  actually  the 
case  that  the  people  would  sometimes  say  to  the 
missionaries,  on  hearing  the  gospel  story  :  “  What 
you  say  warms  our  hearts,  but  it  is  not  the  custom 
in  this  land.” 

The  language  of  these  people  differs  materially 
from  the  language  of  southern  Siam,  and  yet  the 
Siamese,  the  Laos,  and  the  Shan  dialects  have 
quite  a  large  number  of  words  which  differ  from 
each  other  only  in  the  initial  consonant ;  one  having 
“n”  to  begin  with  where  another  will  have  “1,” 
etc.  The  mode  of  writing  differs  very  materially. 
In  the  Laos  region  Siamese  can  be  read  only  by  a 
few,  and  it  became  necessary  to  make  special  ar¬ 
rangements  for  printing  in  the  Laos  language. 
Type  was  prepared  by  the  first  missionaries  at 
Chieng  Mai  in  northern  Siam,  but  this  was  a  first 
attempt,  for  there  were  no  printed  books  in  the 
Laos  tongue  and  the  type  did  not  work.  Finally 
the  whole  matter  was  taken  to  New  York,  and  in 
1890  a  font  of  Laos  type  was  finished  and  sent  out 
to  Bangkok.  Meantime,  the  Gospel  of  Matthew, 
revised  by  Mrs.  McGilvary,  had  been  printed  at 
Bangkok  with  Siamese  letters  for  the  benefit  of 
the  better  educated  of  the  Laos  people. 

The  languages  used  in  Siam  are  three:  the  Sia¬ 
mese,  the  Chinese  and  the  Laos.  But  in  the  north¬ 
western  portion  of  this  field,  in  the  Shan  states  of 

British  territory,  one  set  of  dialects  can  be  found ; 

8 


in  the  northernmost  parts  of  the  Laos  field  is 
another  group  of  dialects,  and  in  the  east,  on  the 
borders  of  the  French  possessions,  are  still  other 
dialects.  The  missionaries  are  convinced  that 
somewhere  in  this  maze  of  dialects  there  must  be 
one  which  will  serve  as  the  basis  of  a  common  writ¬ 
ten  language  for  all  Thai  people.  It  has  been  pro¬ 
posed  to  the  Bible  Society  that  it  grant  half  the  salary 
of  Dr.  Dodd,  one  of  the  missionaries  in  the  Laos 
country,  so  that  he  may  press  on  researches  already 
begun  in  the  different  dialects  in  order  to  compare 
them  and  find  the  one  most  generally  intelligible. 

Rev.  John  Carrintfton  Begins  His  Twenty  Years’ 

Service 

The  missionaries  in  their  Bible  work  have  had 
aid  from  the  American  Bible  Society  ever  since 
1851.  In  1887  the  general  work  had  grown  so  that 
the  missionaries  found  it  difficult  to  give  proper  at¬ 
tention  to  Bible  distribution.  Dr.  Gulick,  the  Bible 
Society’s  Agent  in  China,  was  then  given  the  super¬ 
intendence  of  Bible  distribution  in  Siam.  It  soon 
proved  that  the  distance  from  Shanghai  to  Bangkok 
was  too  great  for  any  practicable  supervision  of  the 
needs  of  Siam,  and  in  1890  the  Society  established 
a  separate  Agency  in  Siam,  sending  out  as  Agent 
the  Rev.  John  Carrington,  pastor  of  a  Presbyterian 
church  in  California,  who  had  been  a  missionary  in 
Siam  and  knew  the  language. 

Mr.  Carrington  in  one  of  his  reports  gives  a 
glimpse  of  the  fatigues  of  the  Bible  Agent’s  life. 
He  was  to  make  a  tour  in  one  of  the  boats  owned 
by  the  Society  for  use  in  Bible  distribution  along 
the  banks  of  the  rivers  and  canals  in  the  vicinity  of 
Bangkok.  He  says  :  “  On  the  morning  of  Septem¬ 
ber  10th  I  was  ready  to  start  in  the  Society’s  four- 
oared  boat.  The  day  before  I  had  engaged  a  team 
of  four  men.  They  were  to  be  on  hand  by  seven 

o’clock.  The  appointed  hour  came,  but  no  men. 

9 


Eight  o’clock  came  and  the  men  did  not  appear. 
So  I  sent  for  another  team.  Boxes  of  books  and 
other  effects  for  the  journey  were  hurriedly  packed 
in  the  boat,  and,  when  this  heavy  work  was  entirely 
done,  along  came  the  delinquent  boatmen  !  These 
I  sent  away  that  they  might  learn  a  lesson  in  regard 
to  keeping  promises,  which  perhaps  they  did  not 
learn.  About  noon  we  got  away,  stopping  here  and 
there  to  buy  coverings  for  the  men,  charcoal  fur¬ 
naces,  lanterns,  etc.,  for  the  voyage,  and  pushed  on 
into  the  canal  which  leads  to  the  Tachin  River. 

“  September  11th.  Stopped  at  a  temple  to  attend 
to  a  leak  in  my  boat.  I  was  to  occupy  the  house 
of  the  boat,  but  ants  by  the  thousands  and  thou¬ 
sands  disputed  my  right  there.  All  day  to-day  I 
sold  only  eight  books. 

September  12th.  About  nine  o’clock  in  the  morn¬ 
ing  we  were  very  glad  to  reach  the  Tachin.  The 
canal  had  become  so  shallow  that  travel  was  pain¬ 
fully  slow.  Stopped  at  three  Buddhist  temples  ; 
labored  among  the  people  at  Nakonshaisi.  In  the 
afternoon  entered  the  canal  which  leads  to  Phrapa- 
thom,  arriving  at  this  large  town  just  before  sunset. 
The  day’s  sales  were  139  books. 

“  September  13th.  Worked  all  day  in  Phrapathom, 
the  central  government  town  of  three  large  prov¬ 
inces.  The  tallest  pagoda  in  Siam  is  at  this  place. 
It  is  nearly  400  feet  high.  One  long  street  runs 
through  the  town  and  is  lined  on  both  sides  with 
stores,  market  stalls,  and  workshops,  the  residences 
being  largely  in  the  rear  of  the  stores  and  work¬ 
shops.  As  in  most  large  Siamese  towns  the  gam¬ 
bling  house  is  conspicuous  with  its  accompanying 
evils.  The  sales  to-day  were  413  books.  This 
ended  the  week,  and  we  rested  on  Sunday. 

September  23rd.  Read  Siamese  Scriptures  in  the 
hearing  of  my  boatmen,  had  prayers,  and  moved 
down  the  river  to  Muang  Samoot,  the  province  town. 

Labored  all  day,  with  the  result  of  sales  of  315  books. 

10 


Twenty  of  them  were  Chinese.  No  one  knows  how 
much  conversation,  how  much  preaching,  how  much 
answering  of  the  same  questions  over  and  over  again 
are  involved  in  such  a  day’s  work. 

'‘'September  30th.  Sold  nineteen  Siamese  and 
four  Chinese  books,  and  reached  Bangkok  at  11  a.m. 
During  this  tour  of  thirty  days  we  visited  some 
sixty-five  temples,  five  cities,  and  twenty-five  vil¬ 
lages.  I  came  in  contact  with  hundreds  of  people, 
preached  the  gospel  in  many  places,  had  many  con¬ 
versations  with  the  people  on  “  the  Way,”  and  sold 
2,864  books  of  Scripture,  of  which  214  were  Chi¬ 
nese.  This  distribution  is  one  of  the  most  impor¬ 
tant  branches  of  our  work.  A  tour  of  this  kind  takes 
one  into  heat,  discomfort,  mosquitoes  and  other 
insects,  but  also  into  many  pleasant  experiences.” 

During  some  forty  years  the  missionaries  gave 
away  gratuitously  all  the  Scriptures  which  they 
printed.  About  1880  the  decision  was  taken  to  re¬ 
quire  payment  for  all  books.  Like  spoiled  children 
the  people  immediately  protested;  missionaries  had 
no  right  to  ask  money  for  these  books  ;  their  “kind  ” 
predecessors  always  gave  them  away,  etc.,  etc.  In 
one  year  the  number  of  books  put  in  circulation  fell 
from  five  or  six  thousand  to  716.  This  was  the 
more  disheartening  because  the  price  asked  for  the 
books  represented  only  one-tenth  (or  less)  of  their 
cost.  The  distribution  of  the  Scriptures  at  this  time 
was  carried  on  by  the  missionaries,  it  being  almost 
impossible  to  find  colporteurs  who  were  both  good 
and  clever  salesmen.  It  was  from  personal  expe¬ 
rience,  then,  that  Mr.  Irwin,  the  present  Agent  of 
the  Society  in  Siam,  wrote  :  “  It  is  easier  to  clear 
the  worst  jungle  for  a  crop  than  to  clear  the  souls 
of  men  for  a  harvest — a  jungle  has  no  will !  ” 

Mr.  Carrington  was  always  enthusiastic  about  the 
work  which  the  books  he  distributed  will  certainly 
accomplish.  In  another  report  he  said :  “  These 

books  have  gone  into  all  sorts  of  places — Christian 

11 


homes,  Christian  schools,  public  schools,  markets, 
railway  cars,  railway  stations,  street  cars,  boats, 
steamers,  streets,  alleys,  opium  dens,  gambling 
houses  (and  worse  places),  temples,  and  the  homes 
of  the  people,  along  canals  and  rivers,  in  villages, 
in  some  twenty  towns  and  cities,  whose  inhabitants 
number  from  1,000  to  20,000,  and  in  Bangkok  itself, 
estimated  to  contain  500,000.  These  books  have 
been  sold  to  believers  and  unbelievers.  Many 
women  and  children  have  purchased  them.  Very 
rarely  have  we  seen  evidence  of  their  destruction.” 

Printing  in  Siamese 

The  great  enterprise  of  printing  the  Bible  in 
Siamese  has  been  unusually  difficult.  In  1884  the 
Rev.  Mr.  MacDonald  wrote  that  the  poor  little 
press  at  Bangkok  would  require  four  years  to  print 
the  Bible  if  not  doing  anything  else.  The  mission¬ 
aries  of  the  American  Board  in  Bangkok  not  only 
set  up  a  printing  office,  and  introduced  into  Siamese 
literature  the  separation  between  words,  and  marks 
of  punctuation,  which  nobody  had  ever  thought  of 
before,  but  they  cast  smaller  type  than  that  in  com¬ 
mon  use  and  reduced  the  bulk  of  their  New  Testa¬ 
ment  portions.  Mr.  Robinson  estimated  that  the 
new  type  saved  about  half  of  the  cost  of  the  books. 
Nevertheless,  one  of  the  missionaries,  writing  in 
1884,  said  that  the  Bible  in  Siamese,  if  bound  in 
one  volume,  would  be  about  as  large  as  Webster’s 
Dictionary.  A  novel  trouble  encountered  by  the 
Bible  Society’s  Agent  is  that  books  cannot  be 
bound  in  any  quantity  because  a  specially  greedy 
insect  bores  into  its  covers  for  the  paste  !  A  reduc¬ 
tion  in  size  of  the  New  Testament  in  both  the  Sia¬ 
mese  and  the  Laos  language  is  now  to  be  made  by 
having  plates  manufactured  in  Yokohama  by  the 
photozinc  process,  so  as  to  make  a  real  pocket  edi¬ 
tion  of  the  Testament.  Hitherto  the  smallest  books 
of  the  Bible  have  been  the  best  sellers. 

12 


Upon  the  Agent  of  the  Bible  Society  falls  the 
responsibility  for  final  reading  of  the  proofs  of 
the  Bible  in  both  Siamese  and  Laos  languages. 
This  is  an  enormous  labor,  and  it  undoubtedly 
shortened  the  days  of  Dr.  Carrington,  who  did  this 
work,  so  important  in  Bible  publication.  Dr.  Car¬ 
rington  was  also  chairman  of  the  Revision  Com¬ 
mittee  appointed  by  the  Presbyterian  Mission,  a 
position  which  involved  an  immense  amount  of 
drudgery.  During  his  term  of  service  he  availed 
himself  of  the  assistance  of  a  scholar  from  Cochin 
China  to  make  a  translation  into  Cambodian  of  the 
Gospel  of  St.  Luke,  the  book  of  Acts,  and  the 
twentieth  chapter  of  Exodus.  These  books  were 
carefully  written  out  and  sent  to  California,  where 
they  were  printed  for  the  Bible  Society  by  the 
photozinc  process. 

The  Rev.  John  Carrington,  D.D.,  the  veteran 
Agent  of  the  Society,  died  October  13,  1912,  and 
was  buried  in  Siam,  which  he  loved,  and  to  which, 
as  missionary  and  as  Bible  Society  Agent,  he  had 
given  thirty  years  of  his  life.  “  Simple,  genuine 
and  great,  his  figure  has  eminent  significance  in 
the  missionary  annals  of  that  land.”  In  the  work 
of  Bible  distribution  he  was  energetic,  persistent 
and  aggressive,  and  had  his  own  method  of  doing 
his  own  work,  as  all  great  men  have.  He  was  uni¬ 
versally  respected  and  greatly  beloved  by  many. 
As  Agent  of  the  American  Bible  Society  he  kept 
steadily  at  work  in  all  weathers,  in  spite  of  the  ad¬ 
vice  of  physicians  and  protests  of  friends.  Heliterally 
laid  down  his  life  for  the  Bible  and  its  distribution. 

Rev.  Robert  Irwin  Takes  up  the  Work 

The  Rev.  Robert  Irwin,  who  had  been  associated 
with  Dr.  Carrington  a  little  more  than  a  year,  was 
appointed  Agent  of  the  Society  after  Dr.  Carring¬ 
ton’s  death.  He  took  hold  of  the  affairs  of  the 
Agency  in  a  thoroughly  masterful  way,  recognizing 


that  the  day  had  passed  where  any  important  part 
of  the  Agent’s  time  should  be  given  to  going  about 
as  a  colporteur  to  distribute  Scriptures.  He  felt 
that  the  field  was  now  so  large  and  contained  so 
many  different  elements  that  the  work  must  be 
organized  on  a  broader  scale,  bringing  more  col¬ 
porteurs  into  the  work  in  order  to  reach  different 
parts  of  the  field  at  the  same  time.  Mr.  Irwin’s 
missionary  field  had  been  in  northern  Siam,  among 
the  Laos  people,  and  he  naturally  had  personal 
knowledge  of  the  possibilities  and  the  necessities 
of  that  part  of  the  field.  This  led  him  to  wrestle 
with  the  problems  of  that  region. 

The  Christians  in  the  Laos  field  have  been  taught 
that  each  individual  has  a  duty  to  win  men  to  Christ 
from  the  moment  that  he  has  himself  accepted  Jesus 
Christ  as  his  Saviour.  This  produces ademand upon 
the  press  which  is  rather  remarkable.  As  fast  as  the 
portions  of  Scripture  can  be  printed  the  Christians 
buy  them  up,  in  order  to  distribute  them  among 
neighbors  who  have  not  accepted  Christianity. 

The  only  Laos  printing  press  in  the  whole  world 
is  that  of  the  Presbyterian  Mission  at  Chieng  Mai, 
and  it  is  kept  busy  in  supplying  the  needs  of  that 
field.  For  years  the  Rev.  D.  G.  Collins,  manager 
of  the  press,  has  taken  charge  of  the  proof  reading, 
storing  and  shipping  of  the  Laos  Scriptures  printed 
at  Chieng  Mai.  In  fact,  he  acts  as  a  sub-Agent  of 
the  Society  in  other  ways,  even  supervising  a  num¬ 
ber  of  colporteurs.  It  is  an  illustration  of  the  heavy 
work  which  Mr.  Collins  has  done  gratuitously  for 
the  Society  which  one  sees  when  a  caravan  of  pack 
mules  departs  from  the  printing  office  with  90,000 
books  which  it  will  bear  on  a  twelve-days  journey 
to  Chiengrai,  far  up  toward  the  border  of  the  British 
Shan  states. 

Voluntary  and  Generous  Service 

The  missionaries  among  the  Laos  are  pushing 

14 


their  work  both  in  the  British  territory  in  the  north¬ 
west  and  French  territory  on  the  east.  They  meet 
with  many  difficulties  but  also  many  encourage¬ 
ments.  A  colporteur  at  a  lone  station  on  the  Me¬ 
kong  River,  after  some  months  of  labor,  sends  in 
word  that  there  are  ninety  persons  desiring  to  be 
baptized.  The  reality  of  the  conversions  appears 
in  the  devotion  of  the  church  members.  Many 
Christians  serve  as  Bible  distributers  for  love  of 
the  work.  Dr.  McKean  mentions  a  peddler  of  drugs 
and  medicine  who  always  makes  it  a  point  to  carry 
Scriptures  with  him  on  his  tours  as  salesman.  A 
church  among  the  lepers,  in  this  Laos  country,  in 
1913  sent  a  gift  of  twenty-five  rupees  to  the  Ameri¬ 
can  Bible  Society.  The  members  immediately 
made  another  effort,  and  out  of  their  deep  poverty 
raised  money  to  buy  4,250  Scripture  portions  for 
distribution  among  their  own  Laos  people.  In  the 
town  of  Prae  there  are  two  churches,  and  together 
they  have  given  more  than  $19,  which  is  a  large 
sum  in  northern  Siam,  to  buy  Scriptures  for  gratui¬ 
tous  distribution  among  those  who  have  them  not. 

A  problem  in  the  southern  part  of  the  field  is  to 
find  Siamese  willing  to  work  as  colporteurs  for  their 
own  people.  Colporteurs  can  be  found  easily 
among  the  Chinese  residents,  but  the  Siamese 
Christians  seem  to  shrink  from  the  fatigues  of  the 
colporteur’s  life.  It  is  true  that  the  work  offers 
nothing  to  attract  excepting  love  to  Jesus  Christ. 
The  pay  of  the  colporteurs  averages  about  $5.50  a 
month.  When  they  go  on  long  tours  they  are 
allowed  the  cost  of  their  daily  rice  besides.  In  the 
city  of  Bangkok  two  of  the  colporteurs  are  leaders 
in  the  Chinese  Presbyterian  Church,  three  are  mem¬ 
bers  of  the  Chinese  Baptist  Church,  and  one  is  a 
member  of  the  Siamese  Presbyterian  Church. 
“These  colporteurs,”  says  the  Agent,  “are  like 
stokers  in  a  steamship — out  of  sight,  but  absolutely 

essential  to  any  progress.”  In  1914  forty-eight 

15 


colporteurs  were  employed  in  this  field  besides 
one  Bible-woman. 

Testimony  From  Missionaries 

As  a  rule  the  missionaries  thoroughly  appreciate 
the  importance  of  Bible  distribution  work.  The 
Rev.  Dr.  Campbell  says,  “Where  the  Scriptures 
are,  there  the  converts  are.”  Dr.  Campbell,  at 
Chieng  Mai,  has  almost  lived  with  his  evangelists 
and  colporteurs  and  has  had  them  always  under  his 
instruction  and  the  inspiration  of  his  energy.  These 
men,  paid  and  unpaid,  have  literally  flooded  his  dis¬ 
trict  with  Scriptures,  with  the  result  that  he  has 
had  almost  constant  accessions  to  the  church  during 
the  year.  “At  the  Bantah  communion  service,” 
says  Dr.  Campbell,  “fifty-nine  persons  were  bap¬ 
tized.  In  every  single  home  represented  by  these 
fifty-nine  persons.  Scriptures  had  been  placed  be¬ 
fore  any  member  of  these  households  had  become 
a  Christian.  One  who  seemed  to  be  remarkably 
well  read  was  questioned  about  it.  ‘Oh,’  he  said, 
‘  I  had  Scriptures  in  my  home  long  before  I  be¬ 
came  a  Christian.’” 

The  Rev.  Henry  White,  also  in  the  Chieng  Mai 
district,  speaking  of  the  Bible  work  says  :  “  It  is  a 

great  work  and  the  time  is  propitious  for  pushing 
it.  Seven  new  houses  came  into  the  Christian 
religion  in  one  of  my  villages,  two  other  entire 
families  came  in  two  days  ago  in  the  same  village, 
and  the  end  is  not  yet.  In  twelve  villages  around 
this  parish  919  portions  of  Scripture  have  been  dis¬ 
tributed,  and,  as  a  result,  in  this  parish  alone  I  re¬ 
ceived  into  the  church  seventeen  adults  and  twenty- 
four  children  from  a  village  where  heretofore  we 
have  not  had  one  solitary  Christian.  This  village 
of  over  200  houses  seems  to  be  ripe  for  gospel 
work,  largely  through  scattering  broadcast  the  Bible 
portions.”  In  one  of  the  villages  the  progress  of 

the  people  under  colportage  work  can  be  seen. 

16 


When  the  Scriptures  were  first  brought  to  the  vil¬ 
lage  many  received  them  eagerly.  A  few  months 
later  each  house  was  again  visited  and  many  more 
asked  for  a  copy.  Later  a  third  canvass  of  the  vil¬ 
lage  was  made.  Many  portions  were  placed  and 
twelve  households  publicly  professed  faith  in  Christ. 
“Ye  know  that  your  labor  is  not  in  vain  in  the 
Lord.” 


The  Messiah  Expected 

In  the  British  Shan  states  and  far  up  to  the  north, 
in  the  southwestern  provinces  of  China,  are  more 
people  of  the  same  family  as  the  Laos  people.  Two 
of  the  missionaries  visited  Kentung  (Chientung)  in 
the  Shan  country  and  were  overwhelmed  by  the 
magnitude  of  the  preparation  for  the  gospel  in  the 
hearts  of  the  simple  village  folk.  They  lived  in 
constant  expectation  of  a  Messiah  who  was  to  come 
and  teach  them  the  way  of  life.  When  they  heard 
the  story  of  Jesus  they  were  ready  instantly  to  be¬ 
lieve  on  him.  One  of  the  tribes  on  the  border  is 
known  as  Yao.  They  are  closely  related  to  the 
Lao,  and  also  to  the  Miao,  who  are  beyond  the  bor¬ 
der  in  China.  The  problem  of  language  becomes 
acute  with  the  advance  of  the  missions  into  the  ter¬ 
ritory  of  these  different  tribes.  East  of  Chieng  Mai 
is  another  new  language,  called  Kamu,  which  is  now 
being  reduced  to  writing  in  order  to  make  a  trans¬ 
lation  of  the  New  Testament  for  the  tribes  which 
use  that  dialect. 

Some  Figures  and  Their  Story 

The  development  of  the  distribution  can  be  seen 
from  the  statistics  for  Siam  in  five  years.  In  1911 
the  total  was  52,000  ;  in  1912  it  was  98,556 ;  in  1913 
the  total  was  161,057,  in  1914, 172,930,  and  in  1915, 
178,176.  A  notable  feature  of  this  growth  is  the 
extension  of  work  among  the  Laos  people.  Ana¬ 
lyzing  the  distribution  in  1914,  40,738  copies  were 


distributed  among  the  Siamese  of  the  districts 
about  Bangkok,  9,159  were  in  Chinese,  and  122,785 
were  in  the  Laos  language  of  North  Siam. 

A  very  curious  fact  to  which  we  have  already 
alluded  is  the  tendency  of  the  people  to  buy  the 
smallest  books  of  the  Bible.  In  1914  the  largest 
numbers  of  single  books  of  the  Bible  were,  first, 
the  book  of  Jonah,  of  which  37,867  were  distributed  ; 
second,  the  book  of  Ruth,  which  had  a  circulation 
of  36,594  copies;  and,  third,  the  Epistles  of  John, 
of  which  34,086  copies  were  called  for.  The  next 
largest  to  these  was  the  Epistle  of  James,  of  which 
15,468  copies  were  used.  Of  the  Gospels  the  fa¬ 
vorite  one  appears  to  be  that  of  St.  Mark,  of  which 
10,920  copies  were  called  for. 

From  1851  to  the  end  of  1889  the  partial  reports 
of  the  overworked  missionaries  seem  to  show  an 
issue  of  about  80,000  copies  of  Scripture.  The 
number  issued  by  the  Congregational  missionaries 
before  1851  may  be  estimated  at  20,000  copies ;  so 
that  100,000  copies  were  probably  issued  in  Siam  at 
the  expense  of  the  Society  before  the  establish¬ 
ment  of  the  Agency.  The  total  issues  of  the 
Agency  from  January,  1890,  to  December,  1915, 
amounted  to  1,372,995  copies.  In  eighty  years, 
then,  the  total  issues  of  the  Society  in  Siam  were 
1,472,995  copies.  The  expense  of  this  work  of  the 
Bible  Society  for  Siam  during  the  same  period,  in¬ 
cluding  translating,  printing,  distribution,  and  other 
Agency  expenses,  was  $161,837.58. 

Like  the  man  who  questioned  the  waste  of  the 
ointment  of  the  alabaster  box,  some  will  say,  “Why 
all  this  labor  and  expenditure  in  that  out-of-the-way 
country?”  This  is  not  the  place  to  argue  the  ne¬ 
cessity  of  missionary  labor  for  all  nations.  We 
would  only  suggest  that  the  most  faithful  and  la¬ 
borious  missionaries  are  the  first  to  testify  to  the 
advantages  which  they  attain  through  the  distribu¬ 
tion  of  the  Holy  Scriptures.  The  fact  is,  that  the 

18 


Bible  is  indispensable  to  the  missionaries  just  as 
much  as  the  missionaries  are  indispensable  to  the 
American  Bible  Society  in  all  of  its  work  in  foreign 
lands.  But  aside  from  this  question  we  can  see  in 
Siam  that  there  is  a  great  significance  to  the  nation 
in  this  distribution  of  hundreds  of  thousands  of 
copies  of  the  Scriptures  among  the  common  people. 
We  can  see  how  the  Bible  has  remade  thousands  of 
men  and  women  in  Siam.  By  remaking  individ¬ 
uals,  it  can  remake  a  nation.  From  this  point  of 
view  the  value  of  Bible  distribution  to  the  land.has 
been  recognized  by  the  three  kings  who  have  ruled 
Siam  since  1851.  Moreover,  the  continual  blessing 
of  God  upon  all  engaged  in  this  work  in  that  corner 
of  Asia  shows  that  its  value  is  recognized  by  the 
King  of  Kings,  who  has  fostered  the  enterprise. 


19 


WORK  OF  THE 

American  Bible  Society 

CARRIED  ON 


In 


'  5  Continents 
Islands  of  The  Seven  Seas 
Over  150  Languages 
.  12  Kinds  of  Scriptures  for  the  Blind 


Through  \  Agencies 

**  /  12  Foreign  Agenct 


By 


9  Main  Printing 
Centers 


Over  2,000 

Distributers  | 


ncies 

f  Bible  House,  N.  Y, 
Constanticople 
Beirut 
Bangkok 
Chiengmai 
Shanj^i 
Chengtu 
Weiheisen 
t  Yokohama 
550  At  Home 
450  Abroad 


TOTAL  ISSUES  IN  100  YEARS 
Over  117,000,000  Volumes 

TOTAL  ISSUES,  1915 

7  tSO^^ll  VnlutTUMti  Home 

''Oiumes-j  4  442,950  Abroad 

All  1915  figures  tentative,  pending  complete 
returns 


CENTENNIAL  PAMPHLETS 


SMALL  QUARTO  (7><x8^) 

1  The  Bible,  the  Book  of  Mankind,  by  Prof.  B.  B. 

Warfield,  D.D.,  LL.D.  16  pages. 

2  The  Bible  in  Europe,  by  Prof.  A.  Kuyper,  D.D., 

LL.D.,  of  Holland.  12  pages. 

3  The  Greek  Testament,  The  Ecumenical  Patriarch 

of  Constantinople  with  the  collaboration  of  the  Bishop 
of  Nicea,  the  Bishop  of  Sardis  and  the  Bishop  of 
Seleucia.  12  pages. 

4  The  Hebrew  Bible,  by  Rev.  S.  B.  Rohold,  F.R.G.S., 

of  Toronto.  12  pages. 

5  The  Birthplace  of  the  Bible  Society,  and  other  his¬ 

torical  papers.  28  pages. 

SMALL  OCTAVO  (5x7X) 

10  The  Bible  Among  the  Nations,  by  Rev.  Henry  Otis 

Dwight,  LL.D.  32  pages. 

11  Around  the  World  for  the  Centennial,  illustrated, 

by  Rev.  William  Ingraham  Haven,  D.D.  116  pages. 

12  The  American  Bible  Society  in  China,  by  Rev. 

John  R.  Hykes,  D.D.  54  pages. 

13  The  Bible  in  Korea,  by  Rev.  George  Heber  Jones, 

D.D.  20  pages. 

14  The  Bible  in  the  Life  of  the  Indians  of  the  United 

States,  by  Rev.  Thomas  C.  Moffett,  D.D.  24  pages. 

15  The  Bible  in  Brazil,  by  Rev.  Hugh  C.  Tucker.  28 

pages. 

16  Spiritual  Victories  in  Latin  America:  Mr.  Pen- 

zotti’s  Autobiography.  74  pages. 

17  Light  After  Dark  Centuries  in  the  Philippines. 

20  pages. 

18  The  Bible  in  the  Land  of  the  White  Elephant— 

Siam.  20  pages. 

19  The  American  Bible  Society  in  India.  20  pages. 

20  Specimen  Verses  of  Scripture  in  Languages  and 

Dialects.  60  pages. 

21  List  of  Printed  Versions,  by  Bernhard  Pick,  Ph.D., 

D.D.* 

22  Translations  of  the  Scriptures  into  the  Lan¬ 

guages  of  China  and  Her  Dependencies,  by 

Rev.  John  R.  Hykes,  D.D.* 

*  In  preparation. 

Single  copies  of  these  pamphlets  may  he  had,  postpaid,  for  5  cents 
each;  in  quantities  of  10  or  more  at  3  cents  each.  Order  from 
The  Secretaries,  American  Bible  Society,  Astor  Place,  New  York  City, 
or  from  Agency  Secretaries. 


